The Spare Prince of Asgard
by I 4 2 write
Summary: Odin brings home a Frost Giant baby. Loki's arrival and a look at his childhood.
1. Chapter 1

The baby looked normal in Odin's arms. Well, normal for an Asgardian. No doubt there would be questions about what the Allfather was doing returning home with a baby. The infant had shifted as soon as Odin picked him up. He wouldn't have known what he was doing at such a young age, but it was useful. Heimdall gave a questioning look when Odin returned with the small bundle, but made no comment.

"Frigga?" Odin called, and found her in the nursery where their infant son, Thor, lay. Frigga turned to him and gasped. Then when the surprise faded she held out her arms for the baby.

"I couldn't leave him there" Odin said, handing him over. "He'd been left to die." He told how he had found the baby in the Jotunheim temple after the battle.

Frigga held the baby close, murmuring softly to him with a smile. The baby smiled back at her.

"Of course you couldn't leave him," she said, still smiling at the infant.

"And, this isn't just any infant," Odin told her. "He's Laufey's son. If he survives, he would be the rightful king of Jotunheim." He looked at the new baby, and at Thor. "Both of them born to rule."

Frigga understood his line of thought, but she didn't like it.

"Him setting on the throne of Jotunheim would bring peace, but Odin he's a baby, not a tool." She held the baby closer. "He's our son now. Frost Giant or not, he's going to be treated as our own child."

"Yes he is." Odin agreed. He smiled at the baby too, thinking how he'd stopped crying as soon as he'd picked him up.

The baby seemed to understand he was safe, and was grateful to be held. Frigga nursed him, and even though he was weak, he managed to suckle.

"He feels close to our temperature," Frigga noted. "That can't be normal for a Frost Giant." Indeed, although he was glad to be held, he struggled feebly against the warmth from Frigga's body when he'd drank as much as he could. Using magic, she cooled him down. He seemed more comfortable after that. Frigga used another spell to be sure anyone touching him would not feel his naturally cold skin, but she made the cooling spell permanent. He would need to be cool to be healthy. The baby yawned, and she conjured a crib and laid him in it.

"I'm sure he'll be gifted with magic himself," Odin commented. "I think he may be a natural shape shifter. As soon as I held him, he changed to look like one of us."

"He's an intelligent one," Frigga noted. "Did you look at his eyes? You can already see the brightness. Laufey is a monster, but I don't believe that's because of what he is. This little one is certainly no monster, after all." She smiled. "Little Loki."

"Loki?" Odin asked curiously. It reminded him of their word "luka," or "knot."

"You intended him to bind two kingdoms," she said. "And now he's bound to our family."

Through the night, Frigga stayed awake and gave Loki extra attention. She used all her knowledge to help him recover. The warmth she'd felt from him before had been from a fever, and she worried about that with his small size. If he was small by Asgard's standards, for a Frost Giant it was incredible that he was alive. Being ill besides didn't bode well for him, but he was so determined.

"There's more than one kind of strength, Loki," Frigga told him. "Thor may be strong, but you have gifts he never will. That will help you survive. You'll grow, and once you are old enough, I will share what I know with you."

When morning came, Frigga's patient care showed results. Loki seemed more lively. His alert eyes studied his surroundings, and he noticed the crib next to his. Thor was awake, and started bawling loudly, demanding to be fed. Loki held out a hand, and ice came from it. He was too small to do much, and his illness reduced his abilities farther, but the ice formed a thin frost on Thor for a few seconds before melting.

Thor stopped crying, and laughed watching the frost glitter as it vanished. Loki's eyes widened at the sound of the laughter, and he laughed too. He loved that sound already, the laughter of others.

"I'll have to watch you closely," Frigga told him. "We can't let you give your brother a chill." She smiled in relief though. It was clear Loki was recovering. It was also clear the two babies were as different as could be. Thor was a boisterous baby, while Loki was quiet. Once Thor started crying again, he didn't quiet until he was being fed. Loki suckled, but didn't demand milk like Thor did. And always, always, he was watching everything around him.

When Frigga sang to them or told them stories, Thor didn't seem to pay attention. Loki already seemed to absorb every word. Besides crying more, Thor would also bang his crib's bars and generally make noise. Loki, on the other hand, laughed more than he made any other sound. As the boys grew, Loki was the one to pull more pranks, but Thor seemed to be more trouble. He didn't stop to think before acting. Loki always seemed three steps ahead of all the other children.

Odin never admitted to favoring Thor, but it was still clear he did. Frigga loved both her sons, but she saw what Odin couldn't. Loki was not like Thor, but he was in no way less. She saw him looking sadly at his father and brother one day, and she called him to her before embracing him.

"Loki, you don't have to be your brother. It's enough that you are who you are."

"Not for Father," Loki said bitterly.

"You father doesn't always know how to value a treasure," Frigga told him. "But he does love you. So do Thor and I. You brought laughter into Asgard like there's never been before." She smiled. "And tomorrow, I think it's time I started teaching you how to do a few special things."

"Magic?" Loki asked eagerly. The other boys would scoff at the idea, preferring to use their brawn instead of their brains to study such abilities. Loki was excited though. This would be a way he could shine.

"Yes," Frigga confirmed. "I think you'll have a special talent for it."

Let Thor learn weaponry and how to use physical strength. Loki's gifts were just as important, and she would see them developed.


	2. Chapter 2

In between Loki's magic lessons with his mother and Thor learning weaponry with his father, the boys played like any other brothers. Yet even in their play, the brothers were not equal. Thor usually had his way when choosing what they played.

"Let's play warriors and Frost Giants," Thor suggested. "I need to practice vanquishing monsters."

"I have a better idea," Loki told him. "Let's play darts with daggers. You be the board."

Thor may be better with most weapons, but Loki could beat him with daggers any time. The idea of using daggers against Thor was more than tempting.

"Please play nice boys," Frigga told them for the millionth time.

"But Mother, I need to practice defeating the Frost Giants!"

Frigga gave him a stern look. He knew he'd said something wrong, but couldn't understand what.

"Frost Giants are not monsters," Frigga told him. "They have thoughts and feelings no different from ours. They are people, and there are good and bad among them the same as among Asguardians."

Thor looked confused. Loki looked curious. Both boys had heard the terrifying stories of the "evil" Frost Giants.

"How can you say that?" Thor asked.

"Because it's true," Frigga told him. "And you should never look down on someone for what they can't help. A Frost Giant can't help what they were born as."

"But what about the stories they tell?" Loki asked, and Frigga winced. She hated that Loki had ever heard the stories about the race he'd been born into.

"Stories can serve different purposes," she explained. "Sometimes they're to entertain. Sometimes they're to teach a lesson, or to spread an idea. The idea that Frost Giants are monsters has lead to suffering for them, and us. Hate leads to hate, and the stories have lead to too many having the wrong idea. Even your father has learned there is more to Frost Giants than what he once thought."

"When did he learn that?" Loki asked. Frigga wished she could tell him the truth. At first, Odin had thought to put Loki on the throne of Jotunheim. Then, it had seemed safer and easier to keep the secret.

"I'll tell you that story, sometime," Frigga told him. "But- that's for another day."

She was becoming more certain as time passed that Loki would have to know. The boys finally agreed to go visit the royal stables, talking about what Frigga had told them as they went.

"I still don't see why she doesn't like us calling Frost Giants what they are," Thor said.

"Did you listen at all?" Loki asked. "She was telling us not to call them that because they aren't monsters."

"But how aren't they monsters?" Thor asked. "Look at how many Asguardians they've killed over the years. Father lost an eye because of them. They aren't people!"

Loki couldn't help agreeing with him. He knew the stories of the harm done by the Frost Giants as well as anyone. Frigga had planted the idea in his head that the stories weren't all true, but it would take more than that to counter what he thought he knew. The next day, he went for his usual lesson with Frigga, and she held out several books to him.

"Loki, I want you to read these," she said. They'd often discussed books. Loki was an advanced reader, and loved to absorb information. These books, however, surprised him.

"These are all about Frost Giants."

"You've heard enough stories about them that show them as monsters," she told him. "Now I want you to learn the rest of the story. As a Prince of Asgard, you need to know about other peoples. These books are almost never read anymore, but they were written before the first war between our world and theirs."

So Loki read the books, studying them like any others. He began to understand the past wars. As he did, he saw that it was not as black and white as it appeared, Asguardians had been the ones to instigate the fights more than once. One book held several Jotun legends, and when he read them, Loki found himself thinking of what Frigga had said before. They had their own stories, laws, and traditions. In some ways, they really weren't so different from Asguardians.

When he'd finished the books, Loki went to Frigga and asked "Why don't all Asguarians learn this?"

"It's become easier over time to accept a half truth," she answered. "And remember what I told you about hate leading to hate. The fragile peace between our worlds only began a few short years ago, no time at all when you think of how long we live. Before that-"

"One attack led to another," Loki understood. "And people can't forget that."

"Perhaps they will in time," she told him. "But at least you know now that there is no race of monsters. You knowing that might be a beginning to things changing."

And, she hoped, when he did learn the truth, it wouldn't be as hard on him.


End file.
